Musings From A Writer's Perspective

Friday, June 30, 2017

Here in the US, it’s a celebration on July 4th.
Our country began its drive for independence.

July is also a celebration of Nicholas Turner and
Justice Security.

The Justice Security novels and If You Could Read My Mind – A Nicholas Turner
Novel are all priced at $2.99 until August 4th. That includes
the pre-order of Hell’s Bells – A Justice
Security Novel. On August 4th, all of those books will go to
their regular price of $4.99.

But, that’s not all. Not by a long shot.

Each full week in July, one novel will be priced
at 99 cents…with lots of promotional advertisements every week!

The week of July 3rd, If You Could Read My Mind – A Nicholas Turner
Novel will be 99 cents.

The week of July 10th, Jackie Blue – A Justice Security Novel
will be 99 cents.

The week of July 17th, the 99 cent
special will be Jim Dandy – A Justice
Security Novel.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

I would love to be able to do it. But, I face the same
conundrum that many authors face: the need to make enough money to support the
writing.

I have twenty-seven titles available at Amazon. I have just
put up the eleventh entry into the Justice Security series, and I’m working on
the fourth entry in the Sardis County series. I have another Justice Security
story started, along with two stories that aren’t really anything yet, but one
could be for a new pen name.

And I can’t seem to get them done as quickly as I'd like.

So far this year, I’ve published three short stories and one
novel, and I should have at least one more novel ready to go before the end of
the year.

The job I love is storytelling. I enjoy every word that I
write. I’ve taken out frustrations with my stories, and I’ve gotten my private
revenge with many of the characters that have met violent ends. I like coming
up with situational jokes, and things that give the reader insight into a
character. I like entertaining the reader for thirty minutes, or an hour, or
several hours.

It makes me happy.

I wish that I could do it full time. I certainly would have
much more output, and you, the reader, might benefit from the new stuff that I
would be able to write.

But, not quite yet.

I still have to stumble along, and write a few words here
and there each day.

Gretchen’s
friends, Stu Phillips and Cindy Frasier, become embroiled in the death of their
friend.

And when the
mysterious vendor appears to the two friends and gives them the same advice, that
advice turns into a very public fight with a demon…a demon that lives on
burning heartache.

Will Cindy
and Stu defeat the demon, or will the demon feed once more? Find out in T. M.
Bilderback’s Eli’s Coming!

Not much else that I can say about this story. It
goes live on May 31st, 2017, and is available for pre-order from
your favorite eBook retailer.

Also available for pre-order from your favorite
eBook retailer is Hell’s Bells – A Justice
Security Novel. Here’s the synopsis for it:

Thirty seven
children, along with their bus driver, have been kidnapped on their way to
school. They’ve been hidden away in a location known only to the kidnappers,
and booby-trapped so that explosives will go off at 5 PM, unless the kidnappers
receive their demands.

What they
want is simple: Joey Justice. They want to trade Joey to Esteban Fernandez for
the bounty, and they’ll kill the children unless it happens.

The city’s
FBI chief, Marcus Moore, orders Justice Security to call in a specialist in
child abduction cases to help find the children…Nicholas Turner. Marcus also
knows that Nicholas will bring his secret weapon along with him – his
half-angel daughter, Madeline.

Justice
Security finds the kidnappers with plenty of time to save the children. But,
when an unfortunate accident kills the kidnappers before the location of the
children can be revealed, all seems lost.

However,
Joey comes up with a solution that only Madeline can help them with.

Why not go
to Hell and ask the kidnappers?

Going to
Hell is dangerous, and there’s always a mortally high price to pay when someone
starts ringing Hell’s Bells.

Who lives?
Who dies? Find out what happens when Justice Security goes to Hell in the
eleventh Justice Security story from T. M. Bilderback – Hell’s Bells!

This story, I hope, will grab your heart, wrench
out a few tears, and make you think about your life…and its shortness.

It goes live on July 31st. I hope you’ll
reserve yours soon.

Current stories in the works include the new
Sardis County story, I’m Your Boogie Man.
It will be released this year, but I can’t be certain when.

Also coming soon is a pen name story, which I can’t
talk about…besides being something kinda different, it’s also coming out under
a pen name. Can’t give that away,
either.

Other stories in the works? Escape (Justice Security),
Black Dog (Justice Security),
Werewolves Of London (Sardis County),and a possible sequel to Empty Eyes.
There may even be a couple of short stories left in me…we’ll see.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Every author that has a long-running series tries
to cover new territory every so often, even while keeping things the same.

The action may take place in new territory, or
events may cover new territory that the characters have never covered in
previous stories, or emotions that are new have come to be exposed.

It’s all new territory.

I’ve just finished the eleventh Justice Security
story, Hell’s Bells. Hell’s Bells is
also a Nicholas Turner story, and brings him fully into the Justice Security
universe.

With Hell’s
Bells, I wanted to cover new territory with the Justice Security crew…and
with Nicholas Turner as well.

I think I’ve accomplished the exploration of new
territory rather well, and left open paths that will allow even more
exploration of those new territories in later stories.

Belief in a hereafter, loss, grief, heroics in the
face of certain death, and a new sense of purpose and family…all of these
things are in this story, and I hope are done well. I hope that, when you read
this story, you’ll feel all of the things that the characters in the story are
feeling…and maybe understand why they feel the way they do. And when their own
understanding and acceptance comes, maybe you’ll see that, sometimes, a path
can be changed simply by a wrong choice…or by just enough faith.

Hell’s Bells
should have been much longer. It should have been an epic tome that would take
weeks to enjoy.

But it isn’t.

The story moves at a brisk pace, and the story
lets itself be told quickly.

I hope that you’ll find it powerful and moving.

Hell’s Bells
– A Justice Security/Nicholas Turner Novel releases live on July 31st.
The print edition will release sooner, and I hope that there will be an
audiobook edition soon as well. It will be available for pre-order soon.

Friday, March 24, 2017

If you aren’t careful, time will fly past you
faster than you can enjoy it.

So often, we become wrapped up in making our
living…and forget to live while we
can.

Trust me on this.

I will turn fifty-eight years old this coming
November. It seems like just a couple of years ago that I was twenty-five.

But, I’ve had some interesting times!

I became a radio announcer, and worked at one of
my “bucket list” radio stations in Nashville back in the mid-eighties.

As a matter of fact, I was a radio announcer
off-and-on for over twenty years. And I could still go back to work at my
hometown radio station now, if I wanted to. I loved it! What other job pays you
to play music, make fun commercials, and be a general smart aleck on the air?

Well, now I write stories…both for your entertainment and mine…and I love it!

My point to all of this?

If you want to do something that you love, don’t
wait for the “right time” to do it. It never happens. Circumstances will never
be “perfect”.

Do you want to act? What’s keeping you? You can
start an amateur theater company in your town! Rent a school auditorium, paint
a few sets, and round up some fellow actors!

Want to work in radio? Call up your favorite
announcer and ask how to do it. It’s usually easy, and small-town radio will
help you build your chops.

Want to be a writer? The fastest way to do it is
to sit your butt down in front of your computer, and write. Every story ever
written begins with one sentence. Write it. It gets easier as you tell your
story.

Do you want to fly planes? Run for public office?
Run a small business?

Nothing is stopping you.

Except you.

You have to take a risk to accomplish what you
want to accomplish. Without risk, there is no gain.